With A Little Help
by sineout
Summary: A slight alteration of the end of ME3. Features M!Shep/Tali and Joker/EDI relationships
1. Voices

**With A Little Help**

* * *

**Obviously I don't own anything to do with the Mass Effect Universe**

* * *

Somehow Shepard knew it would come down to this.  
Three terrible choices, all of which would spell a pyrrhic victory at best. Having to decide the lesser of three evils. He knew, in reality that he had only one choice, he could not choose to destroy the Reapers at the expense of the Geth, or EDI, that price was too high, and they served as a perfect counterpoint to the Catalyst's claims.  
Synthesis was a tempting choice, after all, Shepard himself was part synthetic, but he couldn't force evolution on everyone, which is exactly what the Reapers proposed they wanted to do to himself and everyone else.

So that left control, and his certain death as a result.  
Shepard had no illusions that the Reapers would go easily. that they'd want to be controlled by him, or anything apart from the Catalyst itself. Shepard also didn't even want that control, in spite of his hobbling towards the two handholds.  
He said a silent apology to Tali for the fact that he was going die before he fulfilled his promises to her, that they didn't get that extra time to be together, or to simply live, free from this war.  
He hoped, in spite of their plans, that she could live out a good life without him, that she could find some measure of happiness after everything.

He finally reached the control handles, wreathed in arcs of energy, he reached out with his left hand, grasping the hand hold even as he felt the power course through his body, gripping with his right hand he felt engulfed in an exquisite agony, suffocating in the vacuum of space over Alchera was nothing compared to the pain he was feeling right now. His previous injuries were the height of comfort compared to the coursing energy ripping through his body and mind.

Shepard's consciousness was quickly consumed, and he assumed that was the end of everything, but, he was wrong.  
Awareness of vast and terrible intelligence prickled at his senses, he could also sense the calmer, but equally massive intelligence of something else, and even the blazing single light of an intelligence that he seemed to recognise, along with other smaller lights.

It was as if his perspective covered the whole galaxy, and he was finally seeing it for the first time.  
Shepard realised he was in control, and he knew what he must do.

He focused all his attention on the vastly terrible intelligence that he recognised to be the Reapers.  
He sent them three fairly simple instructions.

_**Stop all combat.  
**__**Fly to the nearest uninhabited star system.  
**__**Fly into the star of that system.**_

The Reapers, he knew, stopped, but they didn't carry out any other instructions.

_**Shepard. You fumble in the dark against those infinitely your superior. Do not presume to control us, your feeble intellect could never hope to achieve such a feat.**_

They all sent to him, almost overwhelming him.

The feeling didn't last long, as he felt the reinforcing influence of the brighter and calmer intelligences. He immediately recognised them as EDI and the Geth. They had heard his command to the Reapers, even if it wasn't intended for them, and they knew what he was doing. The combined linear computational capacity of the Geth, and the vast non-deterministic quantum computation capacity of EDI were brought to bear on Shepard's commands.

Shepard didn't really know if he had any sort of form to convey the sense of righteous smugness he was feeling, but he certainly conveyed it in the way he replied.

_**That is why I make friends. I alone might not be able to make you follow my command, but with the voice of trillions of Geth, and the voice of EDI, I command you to comply.**_

Tellingly there was no response, and relatively quickly, the terrible intelligence got slightly dimmer, and slightly smaller.

It didn't take long before the terrible intelligence winked out of existence.

_**Commander, we are under your command now.**_ EDI stated.

_**No, you're not. I've done what I've intended to do. If you want me to give you any commands, then live your lives well, I'll be happy with that.**_ Shepard responded.

As soon has he completed that thought, before he was even given an acknowledgement from EDI or the Geth he was once again consumed with agony, feeling the energy coursing through him, as his previous awareness receded to be replaced with the awareness his mammalian brain was more used to. The handholds were dark, and his grip only remained there thanks to the clenching from the energy coursing through him. It was then that he realised that he was alive, if not well.

The scene overhead was almost serene in a macabre sort of way, the dead hulls of ships, from all races, even the dead forms of Reapers given the middle finger by the galactic fleet dotted the panoramic vista above him. The area around him was equally as dark as the handholds, and there was no sight of the Catalyst AI projection. He wasn't certain if that was due to a lack of power or what happened when he was in control.

The realisation quite suddenly hit Shepard. The Reapers were defeated, and in spite of what the Catalyst told him, he survived to see the end. Even though it pained him, he grinned at the thought, it was painfully obvious that the Reapers were defeated, after all, he just told them to take a swan dive into a nearby star.

"Commander Shepard, do you read?" The voice of EDI crackled in his ear piece.

It took him a few tries to lift his hand up to the side of his head, before he realised he didn't actually have to, using the gesture was more a social thing than something required, as the ear piece was sub-dermal anyway.

"Yeah EDI, I'm here." He croaked out, the act of talking a supreme effort second only to staying conscious.

"Our ETA is approximately four minutes..." Shepard didn't hear the rest of EDI's communication as he had finally slipped into the unconsciousness that he had been fighting for the last hour.

* * *

Flight Lieutenant Jeff 'Joker' Moreau frequently claimed that he was the best pilot in the alliance fleet, even the entire galaxy, and while EDI thought that the statement was perhaps hyperbolic, his efforts were, nonetheless evidence of his skill.

EDI knew that she probably had greater technical proficiency, but she knew that Jeff was unfettered by the rules that governed her programming. EDI could alter her programming, but programming an instinct was a lot more difficult than expected. She was only just grasping the concept.

Jeff was a pilot who felt his way through flight. While he could be a technical pilot, under the circumstances he performed much better when he felt more than thought through his manoeuvres.

It was a facet of him that EDI was eminently fascinated by. It was perhaps one of his greater qualities, she believed. His ability to simply 'let go'.

There were numerous excellent pilots that seemed to exist in the fleet, but aside from a some grazed shielding, and a few buckled hull plates, the Normandy, and by extension EDI, was virtually unscathed, he knew precisely how much he could push the ship, and exactly when do so, without even thinking about it.

A virtuoso playing a spirited piano concerto from memory could do no better, and, to use a human vernacular, Jeff was playing a symphony.

Her more coldly logical and synthetic side wondered why she was sparing resources to make this observation, particularly in the face of perhaps the largest battle the galaxy has seen for millions of years. Her more human and organic side, the one that could feel, the one that had friends, and even loved dismissed the thought.  
EDI was a computer, it was an innate part of herself, one that she accepted, as much as humans accepted that they had fingers. She made thousand of observations, from hundreds of sources every pico-second. Her consciousness constantly sorted through what an organic would consider an avalanche of data. Like an organic intelligence, she assigned values that would define each observation, but they all were stored, and catalogued, adding to her intelligence, making her more than she was before.

Jeff, she knew, held a primary preference in her categorisation. Not only because he was her pilot, the one human, above all others, that she relied on to keep her safe and alive, but also because she loved him.

EDI had scoured the extra-net for information on the subject of love, all the species held different view points, and even more confusingly, even those within the same species couldn't agree on much of anything on the subject. If directly asked, EDI couldn't describe what love was beyond dictionary definitions, she couldn't really describe how it felt without entering into recursive loops of description, yet, she knew, without hesitation, that she did, in fact, love him in all the ways that seem to matter, and she knew, he felt the same way about her.

She knew that many other sapients would consider their relationship unusual, at best. Technically, in fact, their relationship was actually illegal, on account of the fact that her existence was still outlawed. She could perhaps even understand why others would consider their relationship unusual. However, she knew from experience and observation, that not all others shared the same sentiment.

Commander Shepard had actively encouraged Jeff and herself to enter into their present relationship. EDI, of course, knew not to be surprised by the suggestion, Shepard was well known for his openness of other species, and he never showed strong sentiments against even the Geth when they were thought to be active enemies. His relationship, while arguably less unusual than her own one with Jeff was still outside what was commonly defined as the 'norm', so he and Tali'Zorah were an eminent example of the synergy of the unprecedented.

EDI was amused with her wandering thoughts, as she had come to define them, knowing Jeff's reaction if he knew that she was still examining the nature of organic sapience even in the middle of a pitched battle.

She knew that her quantum blue box had considerable capacity both in terms of total computational power and in terms of parallelism, thanks to the nature of a blue box, so she expected that Jeff knew that she was thinking about many different things even during the conflict, only a fraction of those thoughts ever showing 'the light of day' in the form of a question or statement.

EDI turned her focus outward from her avatar in the right pilots seat to the external sensors of her hull, she considered her timing fortunate, as she was able to witness in real time, the Citadel activating.

She felt... nervous.

It was a sensation that she was seldom accustomed to. She, like every other sapient, aside from the Reapers, perhaps, did not know what would happen when the Crucible and the Citadel activated. Many theories had be postulated about what the Crucible did, the most popular of which involved the collection and expulsion of a large amount of energy, but what that energy did was unknown.

The Citadel glowed a blue so bright that the visual sensors overexposed.  
It was then, that EDI felt it. She was, somehow, connected to Shepard, she felt compelled, almost, to do as he ordered. The compulsion was greater than any sense of duty she felt towards her commander, greater, even, than her original core programming.  
She was uncomfortable with the idea that she was being controlled in such an absolute way. But, at the same time, she knew she ought not to be concerned. She felt that Shepard's influence was actively avoiding her, and, as she felt, the Geth too. She knew the door was being held wide open for the commander, and he ignored it.

EDI could enumerate the pin pricks of intelligence opening up to her consciousness, the amount of information subsuming nearly all of her operating power, she could almost feel every Geth, from the single run-times running in an omni-tool here, or a Quarian suit, to the millions of run-times found in a Geth Dreadnought. She could feel the tiny pin-pricks of other intelligences much like herself, confined to a quantum blue-box and hidden from sight to much of the greater galaxy.

She also felt the nearly overwhelming presence of the Reapers. She was almost in awe of the fact that Shepard seemed to remain intact in spite of the influx of information he must be receiving, something his organic brain was never intended for.

EDI felt the commands that Shepard directed exclusively to the Reapers, and, she was astonished that they actually heeded the first one. A single human intelligence was able to halt the Reapers. Even if temporarily.

The Geth quickly came to consensus on their new condition. They almost venerated Shepard, and they were more than prepared to offer their aid to support him. She quickly followed suit. She directed her considerable processing power towards Shepard's three simple commands giving him the force that his single voice lacked against the multitude that he was trying to command.

She knew, almost instantly that she and the Geth had succeeded.

She told Shepard that he now held command over herself and the Geth.

She was stunned, if not surprised, that he practically declined the statement, giving her a command she was already intending to execute before disappearing as quickly has came.

It was moments later that she recorded on her hull sensors that the Citadel had gone dark, and that her new awareness had faded just as quickly as Shepard's presence in what she called her mind.

"EDI? Are you all right? EDI!" Jeff's tone indicated that he was becoming very concerned.

She started to control her avatar again, unaware that she was so consumed in her experience.

"Yes Jeff, I am fine," She replied in as placating tone as she knew to make.

"You had to go get lost in your thoughts just when the Reapers up and ran away." He smirked at her.

"I have full recordings of all sensors external to this ship, Jeff, I would not have missed anything. Besides, I was already aware of the Reaper action, I helped to cause it." She replied in an even tone.

"You... helped?" Jeff asked, rather stunned at the statement.

"Yes, the most important thing at the moment is getting to Shepard, I have just radioed him, his vocalisations seem to indicate severe injury, apologies, I have already set course and engaged to the destination." She responded, the last sounding rather regretful, she knew that he preferred to fly.

"Shepard's alive?" She could easily understand Jeff's surprise at her statement, much of the ground action in London wasn't known to the fleet at large, the more pressing concern of battling the Reapers came higher in importance than who got to the transport beam, and managed to get the Crucible to fire, so he was understandably surprised, and it sounded, elated at the fact that it was Shepard, and that he survived.

"Yes, the ETA is approximately three minutes and thirty seconds, scans of the section indicate that there is no easy access, so, time is of the essence." She clarified.

"Right" Jeff finished, and she observed him regaining his focus, and letting himself feel his way through the flight, to their destination.

She had full confidence that he would easy beat the ETA, despite the debris between themselves and Shepard.

* * *

**A/N:** To make it clear, I actually liked the ending to Mass Effect 3, the only thing about it that I didn't like is that a 'happy ending' was virtually impossible.  
Being realistic, I didn't expect a happy ending, but I would have liked the option for one, even if it was extremely difficult to achieve.  
This is my attempt at altering that fact, because, if nothing else, the ME3 ending is ripe for new story ideas.

Anyway, as always, please feel free to tear this apart.


	2. Conversations

**Conversations**

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**Alas, I don't own anything to do with the ME Universe**

* * *

For all the advancement of the medical sciences, what with internal bio-monitors, to cures to all but the most exotic illnesses, and extreme of injuries, human doctors, at the least, still used some old fashioned and superfluous technologies.  
Chief among them was a standard heart monitor, the displays have moved with the times, but the basic information, not to mention the beeping hadn't changed much in the 200 plus years the technology had existed.

It was something that was reassuring for Admiral Steven Hackett to hear. It coming from the room that everyone wanted to get into, but only about two dozen people had seen the inside of.

It had been almost ten days since the Reapers had vanished, and he had heard no reports of Reapers anywhere in the galaxy. At least anywhere in the galaxy with access to the Quantum Entanglement Communications network. Steven was cautiously optimistic that the Reapers were defeated, but as a pragmatist, he knew they weren't out of the woods yet, he was just waiting for the one person who was responsible for their victory to confirm it. Whenever he woke up that is.

He stopped short of walking through the doorway as he overheard voices coming from the room.

"Come on EDI, let's get going. We can visit tomorrow." A voice that Steven recognised to be that of Flight Lieutenant Moreau.

"No, I will leave when I have confirmation that Shepard will be all right, with no repercussions." The surprisingly synthetic voice came from the room. He immediately recognised it as coming from the synthetic avatar of the Normandy's AI. Steven was admittedly leery of the idea, but he trusted her based on Shepard's reports on the AI.

"They'll call us if there's any change, Tali here will make sure of that." There was no response from Tali, but given how late it was, she might be asleep in her chair, he had seen her sleeping there on more than one occasion. Steven knew, of course, of the mutual feelings of Shepard and Tali, having found out shortly after Shepard's death at the hands of the Collectors, so he wasn't too surprised at her adamant refusal to leave. It was the reason why he quietly made sure that the doctors would ignore their normal visiting hours rules for her. He'd since extended that lee-way to his entire ground team, past and present, and others he knew Shepard was friends with on the Normandy.

Of course, EDI was right in being concerned about the lasting repercussions.

No one was quite sure exactly what happened with on the Crucible, they only knew the effects. The massive wave of energy coming from the Citadel immediately stopped the Reapers, and a few seconds later, they jumped into FTL to Proxima Centauri. That alone was strange, as, aside from the colony in existence around the distant Alpha Centauri binary system, there was nothing of interest or importance local to Proxima Centauri.  
In addition, the wave of energy seemed to impact on the Charon Relay and activated it. Most of the Techs and Scientists on the Crucible team seemed to agree that the Relays were being used to spread the effect around the galaxy.

Fortunately, while that activation seemed to have done some minor damage on the Mass Relay, and it wouldn't activate. The majority of the Techs, Engineers and Scientists working on the Crucible project had gained invaluable insight into how the Mass Relays worked, and repairs were already under way at the relay.  
It'd take time to get all the important relays in the galaxy repaired, but it wasn't an insurmountable task at the least, particularly compared to what the Crucible represented to many people.

Another repercussion was what had happened to Shepard. He was found in a small control room in the the Citadel, near the unconscious form of Admiral Anderson, both were injured, but it was clear the Shepard was in need of serious medical attention.  
That wasn't the repercussion however, what was strange, and disturbing to some, was the tendrils of visible cybernetics that organically flowed from his fingers and up his arms.  
It was disturbing because it looked almost like his arms had been partially turned into a husk form.  
However, the fact that they were tendrils and not swaths of his arms was a cause for optimism for many.

"You do not understand Jeff, I... owe it to Shepard to ensure that he will be all right." EDI replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I told you that I helped Shepard. We were, linked, I suppose is the best way to describe it. He had total control of all synthetics. At the expense of himself. And he gave it all up once the Reapers were dealt with."

Steven was looking into the room now, surprised by what he heard, and what he was seeing as EDI looked down on Shepard's unconscious form.

"He could have so easily fallen, Jeff, he could have taken my autonomy away from me, from the Geth, and the only order he gave me, us, was one I intended to fulfill on my own ever since you released me from my shackles." The synthetic looked up to Lieutenant Moreau with something Steven never expected to see in the face of a synthetic. Love.

"I love you Jeff. But Shepard means more to me than simple friendship could convey... I don't know how to adequately explain it to your satisfaction, the closest concept I can think of is that of family. He is family to me. Does that make any sense to you?"

Steven had heard enough, and decided to make his presence known. Slightly startling the two in the room, causing Lieutenant Moreau to wince slightly, though not from embarrassment. He saw EDI place a hand under his elbow and lift slightly, seeming to ease the discomfort of the man. Steven quickly remembered that Lieutenant Moreau had a bone disease of some kind, he couldn't remember which one, and the little jump he did probably did actually hurt quite a lot, and EDI knew this and supported his weight in a seemingly automatic reaction.

"It makes sense to me," He directed at the synthetic. "You'll probably see the same sort of sentiment shared among many of the ground troops in particular, that sort of trust and sacrifice can bind people together in some ways stronger than the bonds of family could express."

EDI smiled and nodded.

* * *

Shepard didn't know how long he had been standing in the forested park, it felt like he had just woken up, but, at the same time, it also felt like he'd been standing there for weeks.

It was a place that he was familiar with, which was what made its current appearance so unusual to him.  
Before, the park was dark and unfocused, there were shadows surrounding him, talking to him with the voices of the dead people, friends even, that he felt responsible for.

As he looked around, it almost felt like the park was being bathed in the light of a particularly fine summers day, the light subtly dappled through the leaves, lending the forest a more ethereal quality than its previously sinister appearance.

For the first time, he felt as if he belonged there.

Another more immediately noticeable change for him was the fact that he was wearing his normal Alliance crew uniform, not his armour and his usual weapons load out.

The one thing that hadn't change, the single constant between his nightmares and whatever this is, was the boy.

This time, however, the boy was looking directly at him. He knew Shepard was there.

Shepard moved towards him, half expecting the boy to turn and sprint off, but knowing that he wouldn't do so this time.

"Shepard," the boy announced, then his mouth twitched into a quick smile.

"Why am I here, Catalyst?"

"I don't know, but, you should also know that I am not the Catalyst. Call me an echo, it's as close to a description as any. I'm the small remnant of what I was, combined with your mind, to enable your control of the Reapers," It explained. Shepard hadn't realised, but they had just finished walking towards a bench nearby and were just about to sit down as the apparition in front of him explained. "Your choice was interesting. But not unexpected. I'm glad that you were able to execute it."

"I didn't do it alone." Shepard clarified.

"I noticed. That knowledge gives me... hope, I suppose. Hope that maybe your cycle may be able to truly break the mistakes of the past, the ones that I sought out to fix. You might have given your cycle the chance to develop in ways not seen since the first." The young voice sounded genuinely hopeful as it said the words.

"Though I'll always be a part of you in some way, this will be the last time I'll be able to speak with you. Do not concern yourself with my effects on you. Your will is strong, it is why you were chosen in the first place."

He knew that the Reapers had been targeting him, but he didn't realise he had been specifically chosen for anything.

"Chosen? Why?" He decided to ask while he still had the opportunity.

"Your will is strong, Commander. In addition you have a natural ability to lead that is seldom seen in any cycle. I chose you to break the cycle. I was stuck in the logical constructs of my creation. I could not deviate from my task of resetting life in the galaxy. It was the Crucible that let me break those bonds, and it was you that had the will to see the choices through to their inevitable conclusion." The child looked out around them, breaking Shepard's concentration.

What had once been a limitless forest was simply the bench on which they sat, there wasn't even any detail in the ground, simply an off white surface that had nearly identical colouring to the rest of their surroundings, making orientation difficult.

"Our time grows short," The construct said, still looking to the distance. Shepard noticed that it was starting to fade.

"The future is yours now Shepard. I can only hope that your future will not be marred by the mistakes of my past." and with that, the Construct faded completely from his sight.

* * *

**A/N:** So thanks to all who commented, you're awesome and it's nice to get the feedback.

If anyone is wondering (you're probably not, but, just making sure), I have seen and heard of a few different 'theories' about the ending of ME3, the most obvious one being the indoctrination theory.  
I've chosen to disregard those theories and play the ending straight. As in, everything in the ending actually happened.

As this is a post ME3 story, there is no set story aside from tying up some loose ends, so I don't know how long this story will last for, but I'll probably continue writing it for as long as it holds my interests particularly seeing as I've got the beginning of the next chapter mapped out in my head.

For those who have disagreed with my general satisfaction of the ending to the game, I'll direct you to sineout[dot]tumblr[dot]com/post/20792165865/ (hopefully that'll work), which should elucidate some of my thoughts on the subject.

Of course, as always, please feel free to tear this apart.


End file.
